You are confusing installed capacity with power used. The consumed power is going down since the early 2000s, but since the generated power by most renewables depends on the weather and season, more reserve capacity needs to be installed.
The reserve capacity , would need to be 100% - to be able to supply the country for at least several days if/when renables are not able to produce , most likely due to weather.
That's why Germany is building a lot of new gas power plants. They're cheap to build and can be turned of and off really quickly, so it's okay if they're only really needed for a few weeks a year. The new power plants are also planned to be able to handle hydrogen which can be produced with electrolysis (during an oversupply of renewables) and then stored underground.
The contribution of renewables has never dropped below 30% over a full day in Germany in the last year. Good thing is that wind and PV are often complementary.
The capacity doesn't have to be constantly burning fuel 365 days a year in order to solve weather issues, just for however long the combination of startup/shutdown time and adverse weather duration.
Adverse weather conditions can be predicted sufficiently well in advance that this matters.
asdefghyk|2 years ago
skrause|2 years ago
sveme|2 years ago
https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/energiemonitor-strompreis-gas...
ben_w|2 years ago
Adverse weather conditions can be predicted sufficiently well in advance that this matters.
woodruffw|2 years ago